General Policy

Now that Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson has given the green light to Pennsylvania’s strictest in-the-nation Voter ID Law, tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians will have to make their way to their local PennDOT office to get a photo ID. We can tell you, it won’t be easy.

Just days after Governor Tom Corbett signed the Pennsylvania state budget a few minutes before midnight, the effects are transparent — even if the process was not. To start things off today, the Harrisburg Patriot-News takes a look at the newly passed state budget.

The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer have stories on a Government Accountability Office report that disputes claims made by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to justify his cancelation of a tunnel project between New York and New Jersey.

The Campaign for What Works has a great video illustrating the interconnectedness of the investments our state makes in a variety of areas from early childhood education to public transportation to workforce training. These investments not only improve the quality of life of Pennsylvanians but create jobs and build a stronger economy.

As the campaign says on its home page: "Pennsylvania works when our state budget supports what works."

Pennsylvania's new Budget Secretary Charles Zogby trotted out a familiar line at the Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon on Monday when he proclaimed that Pennsylvania "doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem."

Might Secretary Zogby be reading the wrong side of the ledger? Or do Republican Governors Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, and Rick Perry of Texas (to name just a few) have spending problems too? After all, each of those states is facing budget woes in the wake of the Great Recession.

Actually, nearly every state in the nation is facing budget woes this year thanks to a recession-driven decline in revenue collections. So it is a revenue problem.

Pennsylvania, like many other states, faces historic challenges — from ensuring that the economy brings broadly shared prosperity to working families, to addressing Pennsylvania's budget challenges in a balanced way, to implementing provisions of the Affordable Care Act, to reducing poverty and strengthening Pennsylvania's schools.

With this blog, we will present sharp and timely commentary to help you better understand Pennsylvania's economy and how state budget and other policies impact the lives of people in this state. And we'll bring it to you from our perch at Third and State — across the street from the State Capitol.